1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the health care field and, in particular, to a system, electronic monitor and method capable of using impulse radio technology to monitor and/or track people that may need medical assistance.
2. Description of Related Art
The number of people requiring health care has increase dramatically in the past few years, resulting in overcrowded hospitals. The hospitalization of all these people is very expensive, which has lead the health care industry to demand that some of these patients be moved from the hospital to an intermediary care-giving facility such as a nursing home, or to their homes. The moved patient still requires at a minimum the ability to contact and alert medical personnel should they need medical assistance.
For instance, the patient that is sent to their home may wear an electronic monitor that includes a panic button. The electronic monitor may also include a radio transmitter that is designed to continually transmit radio signals to a radio receiver connected to a telephone at the patient""s home. The telephone can be programmed to call medical personnel whenever the patient presses the panic button which would cause the radio transmitter to stop transmitting the radio signals to the radio receiver. In other words, the medical personnel are alerted whenever the radio receiver fails to receive the radio signals from the electronic monitor. However, problems have arisen in the past with this scenario because with standard radio transmissions there are often problematical xe2x80x9cdead zonesxe2x80x9d within a home that may trigger a false alarm.
The xe2x80x9cdead zonesxe2x80x9d may be attributable to the closed structure of the home, which can make it difficult for the electronic monitor (including the standard radio transmitter) to maintain radio contact with a standard radio receiver at certain locations in the home. As such, the medical personnel may receive a false alarm that the patient""s electronic monitor is no longer communicating to the standard radio receiver even though the patient does not need medical assistance. In particular, the false alarm may be triggered because the standard radio signals sent from the standard radio transmitter cannot penetrate a certain wall or floor within the home and reach the standard radio receiver.
The xe2x80x9cdead zonesxe2x80x9d may also be attributable to multipath interference which can be very problematic in a closed structure such as a home. Multipath interference is the error caused by the interference of a standard radio signal that has reached a standard radio receiver by two or more paths. Essentially, the standard radio receiver may not be able to demodulate the standard radio signal because the transmitted radio signal effectively cancels itself by reaching the standard radio receiver at different times.
Accordingly, there has been a persistent need to develop a system, electronic monitor and method that can effectively alert medical personnel when a patient needs medical assistance. In addition, there is a need for a system, electronic monitor and method that can effectively monitor one or more vital signs of a patient and display these monitored vital signs to medical personnel. There is also a need for a system, electronic monitor and method that can effectively determine the current position of a patient in a building such as a hospital, nursing home or their home.
The present invention includes a system, electronic monitor and method that utilize impulse radio technology to alert medical personnel when a patient needs medical assistance. In addition, the present invention includes a system, electronic monitor and method that utilize the communication capabilities and positioning capabilities of impulse radio technology to enable medical personnel to monitor one or more vitals signs of a patient and/or to enable medical personnel to determine a current position of a patient in a building such as a hospital, nursing home or their home.